At all of the schools here in Al Ain, morning assemblies are held outside to start off the school day. They begin with daily ‘exercises’; that is if you can call clapping your hands as you spin around while the physical education teacher barks which direction to turn exercise. After that hard core, blood pumping, invigorating exercise regime; the whole school sings the UAE national anthem. There is nothing like starting off the morning with off-key, miss-sung, high pitched singing, it makes putting up with the hot 40 degree plus sun raise burning through your back less painful. Just then when you think it’s almost over and you can escape from this torture soon enough that you can almost begin to feel the cool air from the A/C, you get smacked with reality when you get hit with sunflower seed shells. Just then you know its not going to be a good day.
“Do you have sunflower seeds?” along with, ‘Take out your text book’, ‘Stop fighting’ and ‘I don’t understand Arabic’ are 4 phrases that I repeat constantly. My day is spent so often saying those phrases that I would be able to get through a whole day if I was restricted to only saying them.
After I getting hit with sunflower seeds I knew it was time to find out who had them. The problem is that once the students enter the school with sunflower seeds, you will find the classroom floor completely covered in sunflower seed shells. The students spit them out like they are camels out in the desert with a complete disregard to who will clean up after them. That means I now have to stand outside until the students forfeit over their seeds… told you it wasn’t going to be a good day.
Bryan the Camel Says…
هل لديك بذور عباد الشمس؟